UPDATE

Un Buen Dia a Todos!

What a beautiful day it is today! I hope it is just as beautiful where you are reading this blog as well. I just got back from a wonderful 7mile run through Sevilla, through parks, past the large outdoor mall - Nervion Plaza, past the hospital Virgen del Rocio, through Parque Maria Luisa, and across my bridge into my neighborhood Los Remedios. :) It's a perfect 64 degrees (Farenheit) for running. I got a little lost and went further than planned, what a great plan that was though! It feels so great to be running far and in beautiful weather again. For those of you who don't know, before I left, I signed up for Grandma's Marathon in Duluth, MN on June 20th! Andy, Jennie (his sister), and Luke (his brother) will all be running it too so the support to make it through to the finish will be great! So depending on how well I motivate myself to run on my own here in Spain (and we all know that isn't my forte), I might be struggling at the end of that marathon. Yikes! Good thing I will have some great friends to keep me going. :) So far I have been good and running at least 3-4 times a week. It could be better, and next week we start our next set of classes and I don't start until 11:45 everyday. I am planning on getting into a schedule to run EVERY morning! Wish me luck with my training!

As I mentioned, we just had our final for our intensive language course on Friday. In that course, we studied more colloquial Spanish language such as vocab for traveling, clothes, tapas, family, traditions, health and diseases, the movies, jobs, and many more. Along with the vocab were a lot of expressions and colloguialisms which I have never learned before. My favorite one is "ser tu media naranja" which means literally "to be your orange half" and figuratively means to be someone's soulmate! :) Andalucia is the region best known for its oranges and when you cut one in half...you get the idea. haha Another one which I like is "Cada oveja con su pareja" which literally means "each sheep with its pair" and essentially has the same idea. I loved the class but I am very happy to be starting a new schedule.

The next period of classes I am taking Women's Writer of Spain, Art History of Spain, and Mosaic: Jew, Muslims and the Spanish Experience. I will also continue taking the Cultural Realities course once a week to discuss cultural differences and adjustments to the Spanish lifestyle as well as the Flamenco dance class twice a week. I am seriously struggling with my coordination of the arms and the feet doing two totally different things. Thank goodness its a pass-fail course! phew! Here is a professional doing her thang....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrSjGht2Ei0&feature=related
Anyways, I am excited to get a solid schedule going with running every morning, going to class, then traveling on the weekends. :) I still can't believe this is my life! Already it has gone by so fast and I have counted only 13 weeks left! Anda!

Well, I am going to get my costume ready for los Carnavales de Cadiz this evening. Being thrifty, I only bought some sweet polkadot tights and a furry headband with stars flying out of it. I'll think of a name later when the whole thing is put together. :)

Miss you all por supuesto,
Besos!

Betsy